India fold for 240, Australian pacers rule the roost

IND vs AUS ICC World Cup 2023 final Australian bowlers saved their best for last while Indian batting faltered when it mattered the most getting bowled out for a belowpar 240 on a tricky pitch in the highprofile ICC World Cup 2023 finalon SundayPrior to the summit showdown Australian skipper Pat Cummins 234 in 10 overs had said that there is nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silentOn the day he kept his promise with one odd delivery that bounced a shade extra and Virat Kohli 54 trying to push it towards the empty cover area was played on in the processThere was a deafening silence at the packed 132000 Narendra Modi Stadium and across every nook and corner of India and King Kohli found it hard to take the long walk back to the pavilionAlso ReadSeven finals five titles Australia in World Cup finalsOn a track where strokemaking became extremely difficult with each passing over KL Rahuls composed 66 off 107 is worth its weight in gold but he would have ideally liked to bat till the end having done the hard grindThe degree of difficulty could be gauged by the fact that the Indians managed only 13 fours in the entire innings apart from the three sixes hit by skipper Rohit SharmaThe Indian team would hope that it wont be any easier for batting when Australia begin their chase as dew could make life difficult for the home team bowlersOtherwise on a track where the ball is gripping Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav could be very difficult to get away after the three Australian spinners Adam Zampa Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head collectively gave away only 83 runs in their 18 overs with two wicketsEven though Shubman Gills poor execution of a shortarm pull brought his early downfall Rohit showed little nerves as he played some expansive strokes on his way to a brisk 31ball47Rohit picked Josh Hazlewoods 260 in 10 overs length early for some special treatment and was also harsh on Mitchell Starc 355 in 10 overs as he got three sixes and four boundaries in no timeHowever it was Travis Heads turn to do a Kapil Dev as Maxwells 135 in 6 overs delivery stopped with the Indian skipper dancing down the track in search of a maximum The thick outside edge flew over cover and Head running backwards completed a stunner that broke Indias hearts and momentumThe Australian fielding was exceptional as the field placement by Cummins was immaculate and the manner in which the fielders inside the ring cut the angles and outfielders saved boundaries was there to be seenKohli started with three stunning boundaries an ondrive a slash behind point and a cover drive to set the pace followed by a punch off Maxwell through extracoverAlso ReadA bitter pill to swallowWith Cummins sending Shreyas Iyer back with a pitchedup delivery that straightened and the batter played inside the line it was time for consolidation from the KohliRahul duo who added 67 in 181 oversIt was a phase where Cummins cerebral captaincy helped the Aussies maintain a stranglehold on the duo They couldnt hit a boundary for nearly balls and the wagon wheel showed that most of Kohlis 34 singles came in the arc between square leg and longon Rahul at the other end had one boundary onlyCummins placed a fielder on the legside boundary and asked his spinners to bowl straight lines allowing Kohli little room to manoeuvre on the offsideThen when he brought himself on he opened the cover region and bowled a Test match length packing the legside field and on a fairly benign track it took one ball to bounce a tad extra and break a billion heartsCummins didnt do much through the entire tournament but did just enough when he needed to just like captains do